An Abuja-based Tiv socio-cultural group, Taraba Tiv Peoples Association (TTPA), has appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to take decisive action to end the alleged genocide against the Tiv in Taraba State.
The group asked the president to, among other things, direct the deployment of security personnel to Tiv villages and also set up an administrative commission of inquiry to look into the incessant crisis with a view to prescribing appropriate solution.
A prominent member of the association, Orbee Uchiv, while briefing the press in Abuja yesterday, accused the Taraba State Government led by Gov. Darius Ishaku of sponsoring the alleged pogrom against the Tiv nation.
Uchiv alleged that previous efforts by the Federal Government to end the lingering Tiv-Jukun crisis were frustrated by the governor, as according to him, Mr. Ishaku took sides with the Jukun, who were his kinsmen.
He further said during a peace meeting brokered by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr. Boss Mustapha, last October, the governor assured that the crisis was internal and that he was capable of quelling it, but that he had since failed to end it.
Uchiv added that, “It may interest you to know that since the beginning of the crisis on April 1 2019, Gov. Darius Ishaku is yet to visit any of the crisis areas to appeal for calm.”
He also appealed for humanitarian assistance to be given to the displaced and that they should also be captured in the Federal Government’s agricultural intervention programmes to help them rebuild their lives.
Responding to the allegations in a statement, the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Media and Publicity, Bala Dan Abu, assured that his principal would restore peace in the zone.
Dan Abu said, “This attempt to blackmail Gov. Ishaku certainly cannot stand. Most Tarabans, including the Tiv in the state, have not forgotten that Gov. Ishaku, on assumption of office, ordered that all Tiv people who had fled their communities and taken refuge elsewhere in the state or outside the state as a result of the crisis in southern Taraba before then, to return; and they did. How then can the same man be accused of executing an agenda to send the Tiv out of Taraba State?
“The Ishaku administration remains committed to its promise to promote peace between the Tiv and Jukun. Those who know him well are certain that he cannot do otherwise.”
He added that Tiv and Jukun personalities were working behind the scenes to restore peace.
